Rain attenuation is among the major impairments for satellite systems operating in the K band and above. In this paper, we investigate the impact of spatially correlated rain attenuation on the performance of a multibeam satellite return link. For a comprehensive assessment, an analytical model for the antenna pattern that generates the beams is also proposed. We focus on the outage capacity of the link, and obtain analytical approximations at high and low SNR. The derived approximations provide insights on the effect of key system parameters – like the inter-user distance, the satellite beam radius, or the rain intensity– and simulation results show that it fits tightly to the Monte Carlo results. Additionally, the derived expressions can be easily particularized for the single-user case, providing some novel insights.

GPSC is funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Spain) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under projects COMPASS (TEC2013-47020-C2-1-R), WINTER (TEC2016-76409-C2-2-R), MYRADA (TEC2016-75103-C2-2-R), COMONSENS (TEC2015-69648-REDC). Also funded by the Xunta de Galicia and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund - ERDF) under projects Agrupación Estratéxica Consolidada de Galicia accreditation 2016-2019, Grupo de Referencia ED431C2017/53 and Red Temática RedTEIC 2017-2018. Also funded by the EU H2020 Programme under project WITDOM (project no. 644371).